A second condition of the loan required the borrowers -- the president and CEO of the former American Pioneer Bank and his partners -- to keep the CD assigned to the bank. It was not until the thrift failed, however, that Winter Park learned that its terms had not been honored.

That was in May 1990, and what followed was a tug-of-war between the bank and the Resolution Trust Corp. Though the dollar amount involved is insignificant when weighed against other thrift resolutions, it was significant to $58 million-asset Winter Park. The bank was paying a 12% rate on the CD, and its potential exposure had reached $150,000 by the time the dispute was finally put to rest.

"It would have been quite a big hit for a bank our size," says Winter Park's president and CEO, Joseph E. Regner Jr., who adds that cashing in the CD enabled the bank to take the $300,000 loan off its books.